Alejandro G Iñárritu follows up his nine Oscar nominations last year for Birdman with 12 for this brutal, brooding, epic western. The somewhat embellished tale of real-life 19th-century explorer Hugh Glass, The Revenant puts Leonardo DiCaprio through a relentless series of obstacles thrown at him by nature and the hard life of the American frontier.A lot has already been written about the difficulties and length of the shoot for the film, much of it due to cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki's insistence on using only natural light, leading to actors having to give their all early in the morning in gruelling conditions in the Canadian wilderness.Set in the bleak winter of 1823 in the uncompromising and challenging landscape of Montana and South Dakota the film begins with an attack on a hunting party by a band of Ree tribe raiders, which sees most of them horrifically killed. The remaining party, led by Captain Henry (Domhnall Gleeson), asks Glass, the most experienced tracker of their group to lead them safely back to barracks. When Glass is mauled by a bear he's left with a torn throat, a shredded back and not much chance of survival. Henry decides to leave Glass behind in the care of three men - Glass's half-Pawnee son Hawk (Forrest Goodluck), Jim Bridge (Will Poulter) and the self-interested John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy). When Fitzgerald, betting on Glass's imminent demise, leaves him for dead, we watch as Glass begins his arduous battle to survive and exact his revenge.In contrast to the coke-fuelled, motor-mouth high jinks of his performance in The Wolf of Wall Street, here DiCaprio is forced to rely almost entirely on his eyes and physical performance to convey the burning rage and increasing desperation of Glass as he struggles slowly through the increasingly seemingly insurmountable barriers thrown in his icy, snow-drenched path. It's a performance that's worthy of all the acclaim it's received and without which the film would fail at the first hurdle because what Iñárritu demands from the audience is total commitment to a story that leaves little breathing room.By the time Glass uses a dead horse as a survivalist sleeping bag, you might be hoping for a swift conclusion but Iñárritu isn't quite ready to let you go just yet. When Glass finally appears to his treacherous minders, a broken, battered Lazarus with death in his eyes - his final task and some sort of redemption are almost in his grasp.Lubezki's insistence on natural light pays off in spades, giving the film a chilly glare that provides two-and-a-half hours of some of the most beautiful and haunting imagery ever put on screen. While it's a tough film to watch about tough men in tough conditions, it's excused its inescapable machismo by a phenomenal performance and unflinching commitment by all involved.What others sayIñárritu has constructed an epic fable of uncommon grace and resonance - a film that, like its hero, achieves a kind of transcendence. Christopher Orr, The AtlanticPlays like the meanest Jack London short story imaginable. Its thrills chill to the bone.Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning NewsA glistening, gut-wrenching wilderness concerto grosso, drunk on blockbuster quantities of self-importance.Robbie Collin, The TelegraphAlso openingNORM OF THE NORTHA thoroughly uninspired story of a polar bear attempting to save his habitat from a hypocritical hippie seeking to develop condos in the Arctic. Washington PostDADDY'S HOMEA formulaic Will Ferrell comedy, but enough jokes hit their mark to make it a passable one.Sandy Schaefer, Screen Rant..